S Leveled books originally selected by or produced for use in Reading Recovery or its regular classroom initiative are now also widely used in regular and special classrooms having no affiliation with Reading Recovery. The frequent use of these leveled books in settings other than Reading Recovery raises an important question: Do books leveled for use in Reading Recovery support other reading instructional emphases in addition to the ones that Reading Recovery teachers are trained to provide? The purpose of this study was to examine the curricular dimensions of books leveled for use in Reading Recovery in order to judge how supportive such texts are for early reading instruction emphasizing word recognition or decoding instead of, or in addition to, the three main cueing systems. The study found that Reading Recovery books, as a category of early reading instructional texts, provide only a moderate amount of support for word‐recognition instruction and almost none for decoding instruction in the use of onsets and rimes. The study also found that books leveled for use in Reading Recovery do not consistently increase in word‐level demands as their levels increase. Los libros nivelados, originalmente seleccionados o producidos para su uso en el programa Reading Recovery (Recuperación en Lectura) o en aulas regulares que adoptaban el programa, se usan actualmente en aulas regulares y especiales sin relación alguna con dicho programa. El uso frecuente de estos libros en contextos diferentes del de Reading Recovery introduce una pregunta importante: ¿los libros nivelados para Reading Recovery son adecuados en enfoques didácticos diferentes de aquellos para los que fueron capacitados los docentes de Reading Recovery? El propósito de este estudio es examinar las dimensiones curriculares de los libros nivelados de Reading Recovery con el fin de evaluar el apoyo que proporcionan esos textos en una didáctica de la lectura inicial que enfatiza el reconocimiento de palabras o la decodificación en lugar de, o además de, los tres principales sistemas de pistas. El estudio halló que, como libros de enseñanza de la lectura inicial, los textos de Reading Recovery proporcionan sólo un apoyo moderado a la enseñanza del reconocimiento de palabras y casi ninguno para enseñar decodificación con el uso de ataques y rimas. Asimismo el estudio encontró que en los libros de Reading Recovery no se halla un aumento de las demandas en el nivel de las palabras consistente con el aumento de los niveles. Eingestufte Lesebücher, ursprünglich ausgewählt für oder hergestellt zur Verwendung bei der Leseverbesserung durch Reading Recovery® oder in ihrer regulären Klassenzimmerverwendung, werden jetzt auch weitgehend in regulären und Sonderschulklassen benutzt, die keine Bindung zu Reading Recovery haben. Der häufige Gebrauch dieser eingestuften Lesebücher in andere Bereichen als Reading Recovery wirft eine wichtige Frage auf: Unterstützen Bücher, die zur Verwendung bei Reading Recovery in der Leseverbesserung benutzt werden, andere leseanleit...

School-age students who use AAC need access to communication, reading, and writing tools that can support them to actively engage in literacy learning. They also require access to core literacy learning opportunities across grade levels that foster development of conventional literacy skills. The importance of the acquisition of conventional literacy skills for students who use AAC cannot be overemphasized. And yet, one of the critical challenges in supporting the literacy learning of students who use AAC has been a lack of knowledge about literacy curricula and supports to literacy learning for these students. Most students who use AAC do not become conventionally literate and few of those who do achieve literacy skills beyond the second grade level. This article will provide an overview of the most frequent reading instructional activities in first and third grade classrooms. To better understand the foundational experiences important to literacy learning, the results of a survey project that examined the reading activities of general education students and teachers during primary grade instruction are presented, and critical shifts in instruction that occurred between first and third grade are highlighted. The primary instructional focus of core reading activities is also examined, along with adaptations for students who use AAC.

This study analyzed the word-, sentence-, and passage-level demands of highinterest, low-level books in a manner consistent with an interactive model of reading comprehension. Cases consisted of three randomly selected passages from sixty different books. Cases were analyzed across five variables: highfrequency words, decodable words, sentences, T-units, and coherence. A cluster analysis was performed on the 180 cases. Resulting clusters were compared to hypothetical cluster profiles that were created a priori. The principal finding was that these books vary in their profiles of characteristics across the five variables in relation to different reading instructional approaches. Two clusters were found to be written in accordance with readability formulas, and three other clusters were found to support differing models of reading instruction. Implications for book selection, materials development, and instruction are discussed.By the time a struggling reader enters middle school, the impact of the inability to read at an appropriate level is magnified at every successive grade, while the opportunity to remediate the situation is lessened each year. Stanovich (1998) discussed ''Matthew-effects'' in reading instruction, where small differences in reading ability in the early grades grow to become large gaps by the middle and upper grades. Struggling readers in middle and secondary school are often placed in special education classes. Yet, Ysseldyke, Thurlow, Christenson, and Weiss (1987) found that special education students are receiving less literacy instruction than their regular education peers. If so, the appropriate emphasis needed to remediate these students' difficulties in reading is not provided, and the cycle perpetuates.

In the current study, the validity of a task designed to assess the automatic word recognition skills of persons with complex communication needs was investigated. A total of 78 students without communication impairments in kindergarten through second grade completed a standard automatic word recognition task requiring oral reading of words presented for less than 0.25 s. The same students completed an experimental word recognition task that did not require a spoken response. Results support the validity of the experimental task. For example, the mean performance scores on both tasks decreased in the expected direction, and there was a significant correlation between the standard and experimental tasks. Other results suggest that the same trait was being measured by both tasks. The data highlight directions for future research and development of the experimental task, while leaving us enthusiastic about the future of the experimental task as a valid means of assessing automatic word recognition for persons with complex communication needs.

This study investigated decoding assessment from an onset-rime perspective, and consistent with an interactive model of cognitive constructs underlying silent reading comprehension. Participants were 128 first and second graders in a public elementary school. Two kinds of decoding items were examined: one-syllable words and nonwords, each comprised of a high-to moderate-utility onset and a high-utility rime. Data were analyzed mainly with stepwise multiple regression and conditional probability analyses. The principal finding was that the construct validity of decoding items varied, depending on whether they were words or nonwords. Tests of knowledge of onsets and rimes accounted for 14% more variance in real-word test than nonword test scores. The superior construct validity of words over nonwords as decoding items seemed to occur because decoding nonwords requires an additional ability that decoding real words does not. Downloaded from THIS STUDY WAS ONE OF A SERIES that we have been conducting in reading assessment. The overall goal of the series of studies is to produce and validate the prototype of an alternative reading assessment battery for children with severe speech and physical impairments (SSPI). The battery JLR will include tests of silent reading comprehension, listening comprehenCunningham, sion, automatic word recognition, and decoding. A systematic process Erickson, of canvassing the literature regarding the construct to be assessed, develSpadorcia, oping construct-valid test items, and designing a response task appropriet al.ate for children with SSPI has guided the production and validation process for each test.The main purpose of the study reported here was to determine the construct validity for first and second graders without s s p i of the items in the tests we are developing to assess decoding ability for children with SSPI who read below the third-grade level (the majority of such children). We chose to validate the items using first and second graders without SSPI as participants for two reasons. First, we could validate the items using larger numbers of participants than would be available if we used children with SSPI. Second, our assumption throughout the development of each of our alternative tests has been that the same construct is being assessed by our test for children with SSPI that we would assess if we were producing that same test for typically developing, nondisabled children.